


I'd Date Shadow the Hedgehog

by Blue_Vapor_Concord



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28113000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Vapor_Concord/pseuds/Blue_Vapor_Concord
Summary: Sonic has feelings for Shadow. He wants to date him, but doesn't really know how. He seeks advice from the only friend who's dated anyone, but in the end, he doesn't really know if he'll have the courage to talk to the only man for him.Please note that if you find this fic and aren't familiar with my work, much of my other work is very smutty and very gross. I advise discretion if you go looking for more.
Relationships: Shadow the Hedgehog/Sonic the Hedgehog
Kudos: 41





	I'd Date Shadow the Hedgehog

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, I would.”

“ _No_ , you _wouldn’t_.”

“ _Yeah_ , I _would_.”

“And _why_ would you?”  
  
“Have you _seen_ him?”  
  
“Yeah, he didn’t look like your type at all.”  
  
“My _type_? Knuckles, you’ve _never_ been able to guess my type.”

Knuckles peered at Sonic from the corner of his eye, letting an arm go slack, Master Emerald shard in his hand pointing to the stone ground, “No? Wasn’t Silver your type?”  
“That guy? I forgot you even guessed him.” Sonic tossed his own shard up and down, catching it on the ball of his finger, or even the tip of his shoe, parallel with the leg it was crossed against. “He’s alright, but like, _not_ date material. Give him a few more years to come out of his shell.” Sonic watched the shard toss and bounce, focusing on its incandescence, its aura of power, its raw beauty. At least, he made it look like he was—he was really, _really_ focusing on not dropping it.

Knuckles grabbed the shard from the air, pointing the sharp end of it at Sonic in a “drop this piece of my Emerald, and I’ll sock you into next week” look. Sonic gave a nervous smile and a thumbs up in a “message received” look. “Okay,” Knuckles said, turning back to the Emerald, “What about Amy?”

“No. Dude. I knew her, once, when I was like eight or nine. Then she just wormed her way into every situation once I moved into the city.” Sonic rolled his eyes in remembering, back before, during, and after the whole Chaos debacle. “You know she purposefully got an apartment down the road from mine? Total stalker!” Knuckles shook his head, carefully planting the shard into its hole, “I think she’s dedicated, not creepy.”  
“You think the same of Rouge,” Sonic shot at Knuckles. Knuckles’ eyes went wide, he turned, and he pointed a fist with his spikes out at Sonic, “Once! _Once!_ How was I supposed to know she was a government mook spying on us for so long?!”

“It’s pretty easy, Knucks,” Sonic rubbed his nose smugly, “You were so caught up with this big gem breaking that second time you lost sight of everything! Including a big-bap bat trying to work her way into your--”

Knuckles silenced his friend with a shockwaving punch to the ground. “ _One_ , we promised not to talk about this again! _Two_ , the _reason_ I lost sight of everything is because I am the guardian of this island, and there’s not much guarding I can do when the island is just sitting there in the ocean, on top of _me_ breaking the Emerald in the first place! _Three_ , don’t forget, _you’re_ the reason it almost broke this time!”

A crack formed in the Emerald, a few pieces dropping to the ground. “No, no!” Knuckles suddenly turned, picking the pieces up and fitting them back. “...sorry, K.” Sonic stood up and came behind Knuckles, “I forgot it was such a sensitive thing.” Knuckles sighed, “Yeah, it is.”

The two sat like that for a moment, Knuckles kneeling on the ground, Sonic standing behind him. “...what were we talking about before?” Sonic asked, hand on his hip, finger under his chin. “Who you would and wouldn’t date,” Knuckles replied. “Oh yeah,” Sonic snapped his fingers, “Shadow!”

Knuckles groaned, “So, Shadow is in the ‘date’ category. I still don’t see how. I feel like I’d need someone as smart as Tails to explain it to me.” Sonic ‘pssh’ed at Knuckles, “Tails is smart, but he’s way too young to comprehend stuff like that.”

“And you’re not?”  
“Knuckles, I’m twenty two.”

Knuckles sat up, back straight, and turned to Sonic, “ _You’re_ twenty two?”  
“You forgot?”

“Yeah. You’re _seven_ years younger than me? I don’t believe you.”

“How old was I when we met…?”  
“You were…” Knuckles tries to think back, back to that time he was thoroughly convinced Sonic would destroy Angel Island with the Chaos Emeralds. “Well, I was...nineteen. So you would’ve been...thirteen?”  
"I had to have been twelve.”

“Jeez! Either I never realized, or I straight up forgot I tried to kill a couple kids. And you met Amy before Tails?”  
“No, after! Tails stayed behind to try and figure out how to unchain Little Planet and keep it from falling, while I was up in it trying to stop Eggman.”

Knuckles scratched his head, “And was that...was that before he contacted me?”

Sonic struggled to remember. “...yeeeah. It was...let’s see…” He put his palm out and counted down each finger, “I stopped ol’ Robotnik the first time. Then I met Tails...Little Planet...then there was the third time, a while later, with the big robot...then a few months later we went looking for the island that crashed into the ocean and literally ran into you.”  
“So you met Tails…”  
“When I was seven.”

“And he’s now--”

“...eighteen.”

Knuckles furled his brow, “That kid built an entire plane when he was nine.” Sonic shook his head, “No, he had that thing when I met him. Kid was scary.” Knuckles turned back to Sonic with a coy smile, “So if he’s eighteen now, that means he’s not too young to figure out love and all that. He’s not too young to explain to me how on Earth you’d find Shadow the Hedgehog attractive.”

Sonic rolled his eyes again, “Why are we even talking about all this age stuff?” He put his wrists on his hips and bent to Knuckles, “Unless I’m your type and you’re trying to make sure the gap’s not too big!”

“Get real, S. There’s not one person in our immediate friend group I’d put in the ‘date’ category, including you.”

“Agch,” Sonic dramatically scoffed, “I’m hurt, Knuckles!” He arched his back and draped a hand over his eyes, “Absolutely wounded! You insult me, sir! I am thoroughly insulted! Beyond insultation! An insult beyond words! Your words insult me! Insults have been flung upon me! Insu—”  
“Shut it!” Knuckles threw a clump of rock and dirt in Sonic’s direction to get him to quiet down. Sonic spat all over himself and the dusty ground around him, hacking and coughing, “A simple ‘be quiet’ would suffice, K!” Knuckles stood up and took a few steps back, leaning on each foot to see if any holes remained in the Emerald. Seemed it had all been patched up. He did a walk-around just to make completely sure, finding not even one scuff or scratch!

“Alright, I fixed it,” he concluded, patting the top of the Emerald. “Now, Sonic,” he continued, voice pointed with mild seething, “If you ever charge full speed into my Emerald again, I’ll make sure you never leave this island!”

“Yup! I’ll try not to smash your precious artifact with my face ever again!” Sonic gave a thumb’s up and a wink. Knuckles narrowed his eyes at Sonic, desire to knock him off his island rising. Thinking that, his eyes widened slightly. “Wait,” he questioned with a hand outstretched, “How did you even get up here?! We’re a hundred miles above the middle of the ocean!”   
  


“Keep up, Knucks,” Sonic gloated, “Last time I needed any help getting up here was when we had to kick Neo Metal Me’s butt! I’m the kinda guy that just gets finer with age!”

“Age and multiple infusions with the Chaos Emeralds, I bet.”

“Nah,” Sonic dismissed, “I can’t fly yet. If I ever naturally gain that ability, maybe I can take over as the Emerald’s guardian!” Knuckles seethed a little at that, but Sonic interrupted, “Nah, I just ran across the ocean as fast as I could and then jumped up here as _hard_ as I could. Had to aim for a cave in the lower parts and then work my way up here. It helps that this island isn’t up in the stratosphere anymore.”

“And you think you’re cut out to be guardian with those credentials?” Knuckles playfully punched Sonic in the chest, “Even if you _were_ an echidna, and I _died_ , you’d never be made guardian of the Master Emerald! Again, get real, Sonic!”  
  


The call back to the earlier point in the conversation finally clicked something in Sonic’s mind. “Oh yeah, that reminds me of what I came all the way here for!” He almost walked up to Knuckles, to close their gap, but then he stopped mid-step. He pulled his foot back quickly, clearing his throat. “Uh, actually, y’know what, I should like, get outta here, I think I left my kettle on!”

“Sonic…” Knuckles said. He hated it when his friend got like this—too scared to ask any personal questions, and Knucks could tell this was about to get real personal. “On my island, I gotta rule against keeping secrets! While you’re on my island, you follow my rules!” As Sonic backed up towards the shrine’s stairs, Knuckles followed. “Uh, well, K, it’s just that, uh, I, have a...dog, now! And he...wants...burgers. Y’know how dogs are! I gotta get him his fix!”

“You’re allergic to dogs.”

“AM NOT!”

“...is that why we stopped hanging out with Bark?”

Sonic ignored the question, simply saying, “I gotta go!” He winded his legs up to take off, but Knuckles grabbed his longest quill and pulled him back onto his butt. “Talk to me, Sonic,” he insisted. Sonic’s cheeks grew a red intonation, so red and so wide in fact that it spilled off his muzzle and shone through his blue fur. “What’s got your laces in a knot?”

“I’ve never worn laces…” Sonic pouted. Knuckles sighed, “It’s an expression. You want me to try another?” Sonic didn’t respond. “Okay, how about...what’s got your cow in the cattle? What’s got your step in a pep? What’s got your horse eatin’ oats? What’s got--”

“How do you ask someone out, Knuckles?”

Sonic looked at the ground, only briefly glancing up at Knuckles waiting for a response. Knucks wrapped his hands around his hips and asked, “Jeez, that’s all? Wait, is that why you mentioned dating Shadow?”

Sonic nodded.

“...is that why you came here in the first place?”

Sonic nodded.

“…….is that why you brought up Rouge and me?”

Sonic shrugged.

“Alright, come up, you dork,” Knuckles said, pulling Sonic up to his feet and dusting him off. “...you’re the only one among us who has any dating experience,” Sonic explained, “So I thought I’d ask for some relationship advice. I just…” He clenched his fists a bit, “Man, I didn’t used to like Shadow so much! Yeah, when he first showed up working for Eggman, impersonating me and all, he was really lame! But like...after he fell to Earth with the last of his Emerald power, and...had that spout of amnesia, I felt really bad for him. Then those aliens invaded and he had that whole existential crisis, and every time I saw him, I... _just_ …”

Sonic looked up to the sky. “I wanted to give him a big hug.”

Without asking, Knuckles lifted Sonic up and sat him on top of the Emerald, with Sonic not moving an inch as he did, still looking to the sky. Knuckles hopped up with him. “So is that when you first felt like you...liked him, or…?” Sonic shook his head, “No, that was later. I think back then I felt kinda sorry for him. Y’know, his best friends at that point were Rouge and some random badnik. He was going through a lot. I can’t really imagine what it was, but I felt sorry.”

“So when did you first _really_ feel it?”

Sonic shrugged and tilted his head, “He got really seclusive after the whole invasion thing. After that, I don’t think I heard from him again until...gosh, the whole Time Eater thing. Granted, in that interim, I was hopping dimensions, traveling and fixing the world, and breaking up space amusement parks, so it wasn’t like he could join me.”  
Knuckles nodded, listening intently. “After we fixed the timelines or whatever, I thought back to all the older times. I realized that even though I felt sorry for Shadow, I had abandoned him too. So like, in the same way he secluded himself from everyone, I felt like I had accidentally secluded myself from him.”

“And then?” Knuckles asked. Sonic took a deep, blowing sigh. “And then I thought some more. I thought about all the times we were direct allies. I remembered how good that felt. Being next to him, supercharged, stopping the ARK from falling. Working with him to stop Neo Metal. Aiding him every step I could against Black Doom. I realized that I thought those times were my most confident. No other time compared.

And then I remembered how Shadow kinda openly didn’t like me during the Time Eater stuff, and I felt horrible. I felt horrible not just because I thought I’d hurt someone who I considered a friend, but like...there was something else.”  
  


Sonic pressed his finger on the Emerald’s surface. “That was the point I realized I loved him, Knucks.”

Knuckles peered to a couple different places on the ground before saying, “All that stuff was years ago. Have you said anything to him since then?” Sonic tilted his head and sighed, “...no. I kept trying to find him, but it was like he kept on the move constantly. I’d hear about him in one place, then he’d be gone when I got there, so on and so forth. He associates so little with us and even his own ‘friends’ that he was hard to keep up with. Last time I saw him now was when Eggman tried to take over the world a few years back.”

“Gotta be more specific,” Knuckles half-heartedly chuckled, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He didn’t want to think about it too long—that whole thing was kinda hard on him especially. He tried to interject, “Well, is he still moving around now?”

“Not that I know of. Last I kept up, he finally settled down in Station Square, and has stayed still.” Sonic turned to Knuckles, “That’s why I’m here _now_ and not _years ago_. I finally know where he is, and he’s finally staying still long enough that I can ask him out.” He blushes again. “Not that I...even think I really can.” Knuckles puts his hand around Sonic’s shoulders, “And why is that, S?”

“Well, you heard me, he like, doesn’t like me, and I abandoned him, and--” Knuckles puts his entire other hand over Sonic’s mouth. “Shut up one second, and listen to me. You’re the one with the go-to attitude and the “life is great, I love life” mentality. Your spirit is getting broken up over knocking on a guy’s door and saying, ‘hey, wanna get down?’ That ain’t like you, Sonic.” Sonic rolled his eyes. “I bet he didn’t like you before because of the Time Eater stuff. We were all kinda cranky when that was happening. And he most certainly doesn’t single you in specific out for abandoning him, if he thinks that of anyone. You’ve got as much a chance as...say...Vector.”

Sonic laughed through Knuckles’ mitts. “So here’s what you do, Sonic,” Knucks started, pulling his hand down, “You run over to the city, you tap your fist on his door, he opens it, and you say…” Knuckles clears his throat and raises his voice to a nasally approximation of Sonic’s cantor, “Wanna be a black and blue blur with me?” Sonic couldn’t resist bursting out with laughter at that, cackling so loud that birds flew out of trees around them.

“I do _not_ sound like that,” Sonic said through chuckles, shoving Knuckles. “No, no, no, see,” Knuckles shot back, “I predict you’ll be so choked up at the door, you _will_ sound like that!” Both of them roared with laughter. Sonic slapped the top of the Emerald repeatedly, and Knuckles nearly fell off the Emerald, he was laughing so hard. When the two finally calmed down enough to speak again, Sonic was the first to talk; “No, but seriously, what should I do when I ask him out?”

Knuckles looked at him weird, and said, “You do exactly that.” Sonic chuckled again, softer this time, and asked, “No, really, like, what did you do when you and Rouge went out?” Knuckles shook his head, “Sonic, I did that. I did exactly that. Except I wasn’t talking about blurs, I...made some dumb joke about gems.” Sonic’s mouth fell slightly agape, “Nooo, you did not!”

“And it wasn’t an apartment, it was some secret GUN base I’d tracked down because the Emerald was still missing a piece and I tracked it to her. So I was also on camera doing it.” Knuckles hadn’t been looking at Sonic as he explained this, and when he finally turned back to him, he saw him, eyes struggling, and lips tight and trembling. Knucks sighed, “You can laugh.”

“Nope,” Sonic struggled to say, “I won’t laugh at my one of my friend’s embarrassing dating moments.” He sounded like he’d explode any second now. Knuckles punched him in the gut, a little harder than friendly, and knocked all the air out of him, then crossing his arms and shutting his eyes. “You’d best not. The datemaster speaketh, and he sayeth you goeth to Shadoweth.” Sonic sat there and shook his head a bit, still blowing some air out and rubbing his punched stomach, “Man, I never thought that’d be the advice you’d give. I thought it’d be super romantic or something.”  
“Sonic, I dated Rouge for _five_ months. You think I’m some romance wizard but I’m really just some guy.” Sonic sighed, “I guess you’re right.” He looked to the sky again. The sun was beginning to set. “I should probably get going, put that advice of yours to work. You think he’s home right now?” Knuckles peered at Sonic, “How would I know?” Sonic nodded, said “Good point,” and then hopped off the Master Emerald. “Well, Knuckles, I’ll see you around,” he said, waving goodbye. “Thanks for the advice, bud.” Knuckles waved back, and Sonic turned, bowed low, got into a perfect running stance, and then bolted off. In a few moments, he was a dot running along the ocean, and then a few moments after, just a weird speck on the horizon.

Knuckles felt he did good. He did the best he could, anyway—he answered the question Sonic wanted answered, after all. He started to lean back, hands gliding across the top of the Emerald, ready to bask in a job well do--

There’s a cut. There’s a piece missing. Knuckles gets up and looks around it, running his hands over the chunk hole. He crawls along the top, looking around the altar, at the base of the Emerald, into the surrounding grass.

“Where the hell is that last piece?!”


End file.
